FHBC Sermon Notes

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Scripture: Hosea 6:11-7:16 - Listen
\Jim says this is a hard passage. Hard to understand, some words found here that are not anywhere else in scripture. But more than than is is hard theologically.

1. The presence of sin hinders God's healing work. (6:11b-7:2)
• Isaiah 61 - Christ quoted to announce his ministry.  First God heals us completely.  He is the one who does it, and the heal is a complete healing not a partial one
• Revelation 21:3-4 - It will be completed. "Death shall be no more!"  "The former things have passed away. Praise God! 
• v1. When He would heal Israel, he cannot, because there is no repentance. They have a love for sin. 
• Like a person that ignores their doctors cry to quick certain behavior because it is killing you, so we are with God. We love our sin so much, that we cannot be healed, because we will not repent, obedient, and allow God to do his healing work.
• Sin not only stifles God healing work, it makes the malady worse. 
• v2. "Now their deeds surround them:" Military term here. Like an army that surrounds and lays siege to a city.
2. The presence of sin inflames the spread of wickedness. (7:3-7)
•  Big historical/ political implications in these verses.
• 923 B.C. The nation of Israel split. 10 Northern tribes lasted about 200 years. They had constant political upheaval.  Jeroboam II ruled the longest. 40 years of prosperity and peace. The golden age of Israel. At the end of this Hosea is prophesying.
• Following that 20 years of constant coups, political plots, military intrigues. At then God sends the Assyrians to utter destroy them.
• Instead of the people abhorring all this constant treachery, they celebrated it.  v3 "By their evil they make the kind, glad, and the princes by their treachery.
• v4. Like a baker, making bread without uniform heat, without stirring the fire to make a consistent temperature, they will be burned up. They will be burnt. 
• v6. anger smolders; and in the morning blazes like a flaming fire. Do not the sun go down on your anger.
• v7. Hot as an over. They are devoured. All have fallen. None calls on God.
• God has saved us from this ultimate demise. How can we ignore this.
3. "The presence of sin seeks corrupt company. (7:8-16)
• v8. "Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples."  Feeling hopeless they turned to other nations for help. Why was this wrong? Israel was to be a separate people, a holy people before God. The other nations worked in corruption, but most of all by seeking salvation elsewhere, they robbed God of the opportunity to save them. So that all would know he is God!
• v11. "Like a dove, silly and without sense."
• v. 8 Cakes unturned. Burnt on one side, raw on the other. Worthless. 
• v. 14 They do not cry to God from the heart. They wail on their beds for the things of the world They gash. They rebel. All in the pursuit of lesser things.